Juan Manuel Fangio, the great Argentine quadruple world champ, allegedly once told Ayrton Senna, “You must never believe you’re the best, but you must always try to be.” This remark, if true, shows two qualities in the attitude of “the maestro,” namely, humility and tenacity.

Although many might have argued that Senna took himself too seriously, he did exhibit humility after a fashion: he approached racing with a near religious devotion. He often spoke of in terms of experiencing “pure racing,” rather than simply winning trophies.

A McLaren driver of a later day, Lewis Hamilton, who idolizes Senna, apparently never got the Senna memo. He’s never made any boners about the fact that he thinks he’s the best on the grid, if not the best of all time.

He generally expects other drivers to lurch out of his way when he makes an overly-ambitious lunge, and when said lunge doesn’t pay off, it’s generally (in Hamspeak) the other driver’s fault.

Naturally, he’s come in for a bit of stick lately, for trying to bull his way through tight spaces as though he were a NASCAR driver (perhaps his latest exhibition pairing with Tony Stewart at Watkins Glen was no coincidence).

But Hammy is not apologetic, even though a number or prominent drivers haven’t spared criticism. Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine suggested Hammy was losing his way, Mark Webber said he’d found a way to trip over his own shoelaces, and Niki “the Rat” Lauda declaimed the Hamilton had become a real danger to other drivers.

And Hamilton’s reaction? He recently told The Evening Standard, “What Niki Lauda thinks about me, I really couldn’t give a toss about it.”

Okay, so Lauda is a bit of a loudmouth himself, never shy about saying something to keep his name in the headlines. And Hamilton has no mandate to take the criticism of others graciously.

But his self regard seems to further than that. At a recent event thrown by Williams to announce their new Renault engine deal, former Williams pilots and world champs Nigel Mansell and Jacques Villeneuve were both on hand. The assembled media pressed them for their opinions on rumors of Hamilton’s bailing out of McLaren to to climb aboard the good ship Red Bull. Both Mansell and Villeneuve opined that if Hamilton had any sense, he’s stay put.

Fair enough. Rightly or wrongly, it’s an opinion. But wait, Lewis Hamilton hasn’t taken kindly to such freedom of speech. Who do these men think they are, voicing their opinions — in public!

Said Hammy to the BBC, “I find it kind of funny. I’m not sure that anyone really cares what some of those people are talking about or their opinions. I think that if you have an opinion, just keep it to yourself.”

Did you hear that, guys? Next time you think about offering an opiniin about Hamilton (not even a criticism, mind you, but just an opinion), keep it to yourself. The world isn’t interested.

Of course, this latter comment seems to me to be a reaction to comments that struck a bit too close to the truth for comfort. Hamilton must be frustrated now, believing, as he does, that he’s the best, and therefore deserving of the best car. Great drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher felt that exact frustration at certain points in their careers, when they were clearly in their primes, but their cars weren’t.

This is a dangerous attitude for a driver to have. It’s all too close to saying, “I’m the best, I deserve the best car, I should be winning all the time.” But in sports, as in life, nothing is anyone’s due. It takes an absurd amount of luck and skill combined to win a world championship just once. There have been a number of great drivers who never did, Sterling Moss sitting at the top of the heap, probably, with Dan gurney, in my estimation, ranking somewhere towards the top.

I think Fangio had it right. Drivers who come to believe they own the champion’s laurels are bound to trip over their own egos at one point or another. Even uber driver Michael Schumacher, whom many regarded as arrogant, generally never ran round the paddock tooting his own horn, reminding everyone that yes, he was the best, he really was.

It’s been 17 years since the death of Ayrton Senna. That his name is still spoken in tones of reverence says something of the impact he had on the sport. Both Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have looked up to him as an idol.

Schumacher actually raced against Senna, and watched the Brazilian race when he was still in karts. When Schumi equaled Senna’s number of race wins at Monza one year, he broke down and wept during the post-race press conference.

Hamilton, of course, never raced against Senna, but he wears a yellow helmet aping the personal livery of his hero. He has adopted an aggressive driving style, somewhat in the manner of Senna, but there the similarity ends.

Senna was absolutely unique. To listen to him discuss racing, you’d think he was describing a mystical experience. In fact, there were times, he said, when he pushed himself up to and past the limit, that he felt as though he’d slipped into a different realm of consciousness.

When Lewis Hamilton talks about his passion for racing, he sounds like a high school student talking about the Big Game. When Michael Schumacher holds forth on his chosen profession, he sounds like an engineer. Senna, on the other hand, was part poet and part warrior.

The Japanese, who supplied him with Honda engines when he was a McLaren pilot, lionized him as a latter day samurai. The power plants they shipped for Senna and his fellow champion team mate, Alain Prost, were crated, sealed and labeled for each driver. Prost always claimed that Senna, more beloved by the Japanese engineers, got the better engines.

Credible? Doubtful. In any event, it’s true that Senna used his engines like no one else on the grid. Prost would look at the Brazilian’s trace telemetry and curse. Senna’s signature throttle blips, which he used to steer the car i high speed corners (now oversteer, now understeer) were inimitable — as was Senna himself.

Jacques Villeneuve at the wheel of a Renault-powered Williams at the 1996 Hungarian GP

The Williams team have had their worst season start ever, and they’ve scrambled into damage control mode hoping to reverse the trend, or at least stop it in its tracks. It was recently announced that technical director Sam Michael would step down (as in leave the team entirely) at the end of this season, and former chief designer at McLaren Mike Coughlan will be essentially taking his place.

Coughlan, it will be remembered, was forced to resign from his position at the Woking squad in 2007 as a result of the industrial espionage scandal that saw McLaren come into possession of an 800 page dossier of Ferrari’s technical secrets.

McLaren, of course, insisted they were guiltless as they hadn’t actually used any of the secrets. Isn’t that a bit like stealing someone’s wallet and claiming that you didn’t really commit a crime because you haven’t spend any of the money in the wallet?

In any event, Williams are implementing a number of changes with the hope of placing themselves back on the track towards, if not podiuks and wins, at least in the general vicinity of the upper portion of the midfield bunch.

Currently, Williams lies ninth in the championship standings, with only four points, which places them at the very bottom of the point-earning teams, and ahead of only those teams who have yet to earn any points at all, i.e. the “moving chicane” teams of Lotus, HRT and Virgin.

In their effort to dig out of the hole, aside from the management shuffle mentioned above, Williams have also announced a new engine deal with Renault. It will be remembered that Williams enjoyed their greatest successes when their cars ran a Regie behind the cockpit.

Will a Renault link-up deliver Williams from their current doldrums? That remains to be seen. Certainly, considering that Renault powered Red Bull to their recent championship, it couldn’t hurt. The deal is to begin next year, and once implemented 25% of the field will be powered by the Regie.

This is perhaps more significant than the latest Williams stratagem. Renault sold a majority stake in their branded team to Genii Capital prior to last season, and prior to this season they sold off the remaining slice to Lotus (or at least one of the companies currently using that name).

Ergo, Renault is no longer a team owner, except in name. They have decided that the best means of leveraging their resources in the sport is to be an engine supplier only. This was their modus operandi in the 1990s, and it served them well: they racked up multiple titles with Williams and Benetton.

Of course, they won two title as a manufacturer team, as well, with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel, but being an engine supplier for multiple team allows them to create efficiencies and economies of scale that might elude them as outright team owners.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have been lamenting publicly lately that the title race is all but over. Sebastian Vettel’s commanding win seemed to put the championship hopes of his rivals even farther out of reach. Perhaps the FIA was of a like mind when they first got the notion of revising (or “clarifing”) the rule on off-throttle exahust blown diffusers, which will be banned, for all intents and pruposes, beginning with the next race meeting at Silverstone.

A number of teams on the grid this year have approached the off-throttle exhaust concept with varying degrees of ingenuity. It’s widely thought that the most effective designs have been deployed by Red Bull and Renault. Renault’s version is the most radical, using front mounted outlets which channel hot gas from nearly the front of the car’s sidepods back towards the diffuser. The channeled air manages to create a significant amount of added downforce.

Of course, even with their exhaust system, the Renault is still off the pace of the front runners. The pace continues to be set by the Red Bulls, which is to say, the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. Has the FIA made an early projection that Vettel is about to wrap up the title before the season is half over?

Such dominance tends to make the latter part of a season anti-climactic, and, let’s face it, part of the rationale of the rule changes of the past couple of years has been to encourage more parity between teams. So it’s not unheard of for the FIA to tweak the rules to help the show. On the other hand, they usually wait for the season to end, and enact the changes for the following year.

Red Bull’s design guru Adrian Newey seems rightly peeved at this turn of events. Said Newey to the BBC, “We’ve got a regulation change, let’s face it. How that is going to affect us compared to the others is difficult to tell. Lotus Renault, they’re the ones who have clearly designed their car around the exhausts, so they I would imagine must be concerned. We designed our car around the exhaust in as much as we had the exhaust solution that you see on the car from very early on in the research of RB7.”

Newey was referring to the fact that the FIA have claimed that they’re not changing the rules, but are merely implementing a “clarification.” Right.

Newey has also revealed, in part, why Red Bull’s deployment of the off-throttle exhaust system has been so successful: because it’s integral to the design concept of the car, rather than just being an afterthought upgrade. That’s the standard Newey modus operandi.

Will the removal of the system seriously impair the performance of the Red Bulls and the Renaults? Said Newey, “We’ve never taken it off before and we don’t know how that is going to affect us compared to our direct competitors. I think probably that Ferrari and Mercedes will be less affected than we are, McLaren may also be less affected. We designed and develop the car around it the others fitted it basically for the first race.”

Naturally, with no in-season testing, it’s difficult to assess the effect of the changes until they’re actually deployed for the upcoming race. This highlights one of the basic problems of the current in-season ban on testing.

“We’ve done some simulation,” said Newey about the running the car without off-throttle exhaust, “but we haven’t actually run it on the track yet and we don’t know how much it will affect the balance of the car. That’s where simulation tends to fall down as you need a real car going round a real track with a real driver.”

Personally, I’m against implementing rules “clarifications” mid-season, unless it’s for safety’s sake. On the other hand, if the FIA insists on tweaking (i.e. changing) the rules this way, then they should repeal or revise the in-season ban on testing, so that the teams can have sufficient chance to work out solutions to the technical issues that result from the changes.

As for the complaints of Hamilton and Alonso, considering that a wild card awaits all the major teams at Silverstone, it might be too early to be planning a concession speech just yet.

Sebastian Vettel had the field covered again today in Valencia. He led from pole and won handily, making it all look easy. A year or two ago, some of the paddock wags started referring to him as “Baby Schumi,” but he soon outgrew the moniker, and one suspects there will come a day, a decade or so, when paddock pundits start labeling other young drivers as “the new Vettel.”

Vettel’s lead was never seriously challenged today. He lost it only during the usual pit stop shuffles, and finished ten seconds ahead of runner up Fernando Alonso. One suspects that by race end, Vettel was simply controlling the pace. Alonso never stood a realistic chance of catching him.

Nor did anyone else, for that matter. There had been speculation that McLaren might be closing in on the Red Bull boys, but that was hardly the case today. Lewis Hamilton finished a distant fourth, 46 seconds behind the leader, and Jenson Button was a full minute behind.

One of the most impressive drives of the day came from Fernando Alonso. Alonso is regarded by many as being the most complete driver on the grid these days. He’s a hard charger, but also a canny strategist who generally thinks in big-picture terms. He makes the occasional error, but fewer than Lewis Hamilton does, and he doesn’t generally blame everyone else including the track marshals when it happens. He also has the ability, as do most great drivers, to make his car look better than it is. Today he did just that, stayed out of trouble, and was rewarded with second place.

The third podium slot was filled by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who trailed Vettel by nearly half a minute. Although Webber was running at a parity with Vettel for much of last year, this season he’s looking very much like the team’s de facto number two. Vettel is generally quicker than he is, both in qualifying and in the race. Chris Horner has paid lip service to Webber’s difficulty in coming to grips with the new Pirellis this year, but I suspect that the shifting Vettel-Webber dynamic has more to do with Vettel’s improvement this year, than it does with Webber’s tire troubles.

There’s a rumor afoot that Renault might have an interest in Webber for the coming year, and this could make a lot of sense for the Enstone sqaud. Vitaly Petrov seems born to be a number two driver, and Nick Heidfeld, who’s standing in for the injured Robert Kubica, isn’t really living up to expectations, even as a surrogate (although he did rack up a championship point today).

Hiring Webber would give them some needed insurance. Assuming Kubica comes back next year, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be quite up to speed after a year off (especially considering that his hand was partially severed in his rally crash this year). Webber would be able to take up the slack. There’s also the possibility, however slim, that Kubica might not return to the team, in which case Webber would make a natural team lead.

The risk for Webber, of course, would be two-fold. One, while Renault seems to be making performance strides, they’re no Red Bull, and clearly Webber would be more apt to stay with a team where he plays second fiddle but is able to pick up the occasional win, rather than a team which has no hope of taking wins at all.

There’s also the chance that Kubica would come back next year, be fit as a fiddle, and leave Webber in the shade, in which case he’d be trading number two status at the number one team for number two status at the nunber five team. Not much of a trade.

McLaren’s day was relatively uneventful. Lewis Hamilton didn’t crash into anyone, and the track stayed dry, so Jenson Button wasn’t able to show off his ability to let a difficult race come his way. Hamilton, in the privacy of his motorhome, was probably thinking, “Yeah, you know all that rubbish I said about being committed to McLaren? Let me rephrase that.”

Mercedes also had a day not worth remembering. Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher started seventh and eighth respectively, and probably would have finished that way, had Schumi not blotted his copybook again by running into Petrov while exiting the pitlane. Schumi hates to cede position (what driver does?), but clearly in this case discretion would have been the better part of valor.

Petrov finished only 15h today. Schumi probably could have let him by at that juncture, and gotten past him later. Instead, Schumacher lost both his front wing, and an enormous chunk of time. He finished only 17th. He later admitted the error was his, but even stalwart Ross Brawn admitted frustration at the lost points opportunity.

It was a good day for force India’s Adrian Sutil, who managed to finish in the points. Sutil (under indictment for his recent nightclub brawl) has been regularly shown up by his rookie team mate Paul di Resta this year. Today, he bettered di Resta by several positions.

While Valencia is certainly a picturesque venue, rivaling many of the other seaside street circuit courses, it has never been an exemplary track strictly in terms of racing. In fact, previous races have been processionals. This year’s deployment of DRS, KERS and the Pirelli tire compounds have enhanced overtaking greatly, but even so, this proved to be a less exciting race than others run this year.

Or did it only seem tepid because Sebastian Vettel’s win seemed so assured from the opening lap?

There has been much controversy around recent rule changes (or should be say clarifications) that are being instituted this season. The first of the changes, which forbids any changes to engine mapping between qualification and the race on Sunday, goes into effect this weekend at Valencia, Spain. Theoretically, cars are already frozen in terms of setup, tires etc. between Saturday and Sunday already, but changing downloading different coding to the engines electronic system on Sunday has been largely excluded from this.

The new move was seen as something of a shot across the box to Red Bull, who often have stunning pace in qualifying, but pull out less of a gap during the race. Today, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber proved that it’s more than just tweaking the engine mapping that has allowed them to capture pole at every race venue so far this season.

Of course, as Vettel himself said, the new rule chance (or clarification) affects everyone equally, so if ti were truly seen a measure to clip Red Bull’s wings and enhance the show, it was a pretty poor strategy — fortunately.

While I like a competitive grid as much as the next person, I hate to see the rules realigned or reinterpreted (mid season or otherwise) simply in an effort to handicap a single team. Several years ago, in the aftermath of Ferrari’s most successful season, the points system was changed to (theoretically) prolong the suspense of the title chase, and it prevented any single driver from building up an insurmountable lead too quickly. Unfortunately, it had the unintended consequence of also making it very difficult for a driver to recover from a DNF, which ultimately had a negative effect on the the show.

Down the road, at Silverstone, the second major rules tweak (clarification) will be implemented, namely, outlawing off-throttle exhaust blown diffusers. Again, some see this a a deliberate swipe at Red Bull. Red Bull, of course, are quick to say that their cars enjoy a performance margin over the bulk of the field for because their entire package is good, and not just because of a single trick element.

After the Red Bulls, the semi-usual suspects fell into line, with teams Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes filling out the next six positions. Felipe Massa came within a tenth or so of team mate Fernando Alonso’s time, something which he hasn’t done very often this year. Jenson Button trailed Lewis Hamilton by three tenths (the McLaren boys are sandwiching the Ferraris). And the Mercedes pilots, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were separated by 9/1000′s of a second. Last year, Rosberg was generally quicker than Schumi, but this year Schumacher seems more comfortable with the car, and has sometimes outperformed Rosberg, in the race if not in qualifying.

Although certainly Schumacher had input in the construction of this year’s car, I think his performance improvement is also due to the new Pirelli tires, which he finds more suitable to his style, and also to the simple fact that he has a full comeback year under his belt which has helped him become reacclimmated.

The FIA has been trying to paint a greener image for Formula 1 during the last few years (as if anyone would mistake an F1 car for being energy efficient). Theoretically, the move to 1.6 litre four cylinder turbo engines (which would replace the current 2.4 litre naturally aspirated V8s) was a step towards the green.

The change has been proposed for 2013 (the first year of Michael Schumacher’s second retirement, and with a move to toy engines in the offing, perhaps Schumi won’t be tempted to make a second comeback).

Now it’s come out, however, that the idea for the smaller powerplants was originally proposed by one of the major manufacturers, i.e. Renault. “It was them who proposed the rules that the FIA accepted,” FIA president Jean Todt recently told Spanish newspaper Diario Sport. “The proposal didn’t fall out of the sky, but instead we had 11 meetings with all the representatives from the engine makers involved.”

Renault, of course, unlike some of the other manufacturers who participate in the sport, actually stand to gain something by promoting a smaller, four cylinder engine.

After all, Renault, unlike Ferrari or Mercedes, doesn’t have a road car business based on high performance or luxury sedan models. Of the major manufacturers they are the brand are most closely associated with anemic economy models. But this goes deeper than brand. Part of the rationale for a manufacturer to participate in F1 in the first place is the trickle down effect of R&D. Gizmos developed for the track often find their way to the street.

But there’s more. With Ferrari and Mercedes balking at the idea of switching to the toy powerplants by 2013 (Luca di Montezemolo is using the B-word again, as in breakaway series, Jean Todt and the FIA are making noises about backing away from the plan. You can read this as either (a) postponing the inevitable, or (b) the death knell for an idea that was never very popular to begin with.

But wait, there’s even more. Now Renault, getting wind of the FIA’s about-face on their about-face, are threatening to quit if the new tech regs aren’t adopted. If I talk to Renault,” said Todt, “they say that if we don’t introduce this engine for 2013 they will leave F1; if I talk to Mercedes and Ferrari, they ask me to delay the introduction for a few years. They aren’t against the rules, they just wanted them postponed.”

Renault leaving F1? Is that bad news? Well Bernie “the Evil Gnome” Ecclestone bent over backwards to convince Genii Capital, the venture capital firm that bought a majority stake in the team recently known as simply Renault, to keep the manufacturer’s brand for the team.

There has been an exodus of manufacturers’ brands from the sport in recent years, and the Evil Gnome doesn’t want to lose any more. But really, if forced to choose between Ferrari and Renault, which do you choose? It’s not really a choice, is it?

Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, there have been reports that the Bahrain Grand Prix has been reinstated to the 2011 calendar, with a tentative date of October 30. The Indian Grand Prix will be pushed back to accommodate the change.

There had been some talk of holding the Bahrain event in December, but a number of the teams had protested the notion of stretching out this year’s calendar for an extra month. Ross Brawn, in particular, had called the idea “unacceptable.”

That’s not to say that the October date will mollify all parties concerned. Red Bull pilot Mark Webber has questioned the wisdom of holding the event at all this year, suggesting that it would convey a sense of political tone deafness on the part of the FIA.

And former FIA president Masx Mosley has gone one further. In a column for the Daily Telegraph, Mosely said, “The decision to hold the race is a mistake which will not be forgotten and, if not reversed, will eventually cost Formula One dear.”

Mosley elaborated by saying, “We will be told that holding the Grand Prix in October will show that, once again, Bahrain is a happy, peaceful country. So why is it wrong for Formula One to go along with this?…[Formula 1] is being used by an oppressive regime to camouflage its actions. If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government. If Formula One allows itself to be used in this way in Bahrain, it will share the regime’s guilt as surely as if it went out and helped brutalise unarmed protesters.

“Having carried out these horrific acts, the Bahrain government wants to clean up its image…By running the race they hope to show the world the troubles were just a small, temporary difficulty and everything is now back to normal. By agreeing to race there, Formula One becomes complicit in what has happened. It becomes one of the Bahrain government’s instruments of repression.”

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been critcized for his part in getting Bahrain back on the calendar. It’s been suggested that he’s succumbed to the lure of rmuneration on offer by the host country. Well, that’s a bit like criticizing a bee succumb ing to the lure of pollen.

Naturally, Uncle Bernie wasn’t shy about expressing his opinion about the recent unrest in Bahrain. In an interview with CNN, the Evil Gnome said, “What’s our problem in the world at the moment? Too many over-educated people. If we can find a way to do something about that then a lot of our problems will disappear.”

Of course, this is a man who a couple of years ago praised Hitler for being a man who was “able to get things done.” Drawn your own conclusions in the context of the current situation in Bahrain.

Sebastian Vettel strengthened his grip on this year’s championship lead this year with a confident win at Monaco. The Monte Carlo street race is often referred to as the jewel in the F1 series, and certainly it’s a unique venue on the calendar, for his glamour, its history, it’s exotic setting and the challenging layout of the temporary circuit layout.

Monaco has always been known as a driver’s track, one in which the relative strengths and weaknesses of the chassis and engine packages tend to be equalized somewhat, and the relative talents of the drivers tend to be brought to the fore.

That said, the combination of Red Bull (quickest car) and Vettel (arguably one of the three quickest drivers, with nods to Alonso and Hamilton) proved to be the class of the field today. Vettel led from the pole, and while he gave up the lead during pit stop shuffles, at the end of the day it was his race to win or lose.

One of the most exciting early battles was the skirmish between Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. Schumacher managed to pass Hamilton on the opening lap, and Hamilton spent the next ten laps trying to regain the position.

Hamilton’s McLaren clearly had the pace on the Mercedes, but Monaco is an overtaking nightmare, and Hammy had his nose up Schumi’s exhaust for lap after lap before graining on Schumacher’s rear tires became significant enough to give Hamilton an opening.

They touched when Hammy finally made his move, and Hammy gave Schumi the Italian hand signal equivalent of, “Your mother wears dirty knickers.” One can understand Hammy’s frustration, of coruse, as he has the reputation for being the best overtaker in the business (just ask him).

Rear graining proved to be an issue for Schumacher’s team mate, Nico Rosberg, as well. Only a couple of laps after Schumacher was overtaken, Felipe Massa edged past Rosberg in a canny and unexpected move. Both Mercs pitted relatively early toe switch to the prime tires, and were shuffled far down the running order where they ran nose to tail for some laps.

Hamilton, of course, was involved in several incidents today. He later had a coming together with Felipe Massa at the hairpin, which resulted in wing damage for the Brazilian. Massa later claimed that the wing damage had led to a handling problem that helped cause his crash in the tunnel (an incident that was also enabled, he said, by…guess who…Lewis Hamilton, who had pushed him wide into the marbles).

In recent years, Monaco has often been a procession punctuated by contact with the barriers. Today, the crashes were still there, but there was also more overtaking (along with unsuccessful lunges) then we’ve seen in years, thanks to the new technical regulations. While there wasn’t as much passing as we saw in Barcelona last week, there was enough to keep the race interesting.

Hamilton was the chief agent in much of today’s action. He had a rather torrid race, all told. He had a third and final incident with Williams driver Pastor Maldonado during the closing laps of the race in turn one, which left the Venezuelan sidelined.

Hamilton was slapped with two penalties by race-end, a driver-through, and a twenty second (faux drive-through) penalty applied after the race. Fortunately for Hammy, the timed wrist-slap didn’t affect his final result.

Hamilton was quite vocal after the race about the penalties. “You know what, out of six races I’ve been to the stewards five times. It’s a joke, it’s an absolute fricking joke,” he told the BBC.

The stewards, of course, weren’t in a joking mood, and while Hamilton might feel picked on (he later played the race card, and suggested it was because he was black), it should be pointed out that Paul di Resta was handed the exact same penalty for pulling the exact same maneuver in the hairpin today, trying to overtake Jaime Alguersuari, with the same result (contact).

And while the race was, on the whole, exciting, there were a few reminders that racing at the principality can be a dangerous affair. First, during free practice, Mercedes pilot Nico Rosberg swiped the barrier coming out of the tunnel, and nearly hit the tire wall at the end of the chicane.

Next, during qualifying, Sauber driver Sergio Perez ran through a virtual replay of Rosberg’s incident, with the difference that he wasn’t able to avoid the tire barrier. He suffered a concussion, which took him out of contention for the remainder of the weekend.

During the race itself, there was the usual series of contacts with the barriers, the most dramatic occurring within six laps from the checkers. In this case, Vitaly Petrov sustained injuries, and was taken away in an ambulance.

The race was temporarily red-flagged, which allowed the cars to change tires on the grid. According to the regs, mechanics were allowed to work on the cars for safety reasons. Technically, the race was under suspension at that point. This allowed the McLaren crew to scramble to repair Hamilton’s rear wing.

The wing had become deranged during the multiple car pile-up involving Petrov. So, ironically, while Hammy complained that the cards had been stacked against him today, the fact is, he probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the race had it not been for the repair.

The closing laps were a sprint to the finish, with Vettel, Alonso and Button running nose to tail. They were all on fresh tires at that point. Button had stood a chance of overtaking the two leaders prior to the red flag, as the race had come his way in terms of tire strategy, but the advantage was lost once the race resumed.

It was a fine day for Vettel (he had keenly wanted to add Monaco to his resume), an excellent day for Alonso (he drove above the level of his equipment once again) and a good day for Button , who once again showed that steady and smooth (his general style) can outpace aggressive and frenetic (Hammy’s typical M.O.).

As for Hammy, he takes this weekend’s Whiner’s Circle trophy. He wasn’t only driver to receive a penalty or reprimand, but he was certainly the hands down winner when it came to complaining about it. Note the Paul di Resta admitted to being overly ambitious at the hairpin, Hammy insisted that Massa had deliberately driven into him.

Really? In NASCAR, that might be plausible, as the cars are virtual tanks, but in Formula 1, where carbon fiber splinters like glass from that kind of casual contact? Not bloody likely.

Cut to: the Winner’s Circle (a.k.a the Royal Box at Monaco), where Vettel, Alonso and Button shared a sedate podium (no champagne spray with the royals around). All three drivers drove immaculately, getting the most out of their equipment and race strategies. Kudos to all three.

And an interesting statistic, which might be the most telling omen for this year: Sebastian Vettel has been the winner of five of the first six races, while Lewis Hamilton, reckoned to be Vettel’s closest rival this year, has won a single race, and has been called before the race stewards at the other five. Of course, it’s not his fault. Just ask him.

What’s one thing that Kimi Raikkonen has done that his successor at Ferrari, Fernando Alonso, hasn’t? Win the world championship in his first year on the team.

What’s one thing that Alonso has done that the Kimster hasn’t? Ink a multi-year extension with the Scuderia after his first year on the team. Apparently Alonso and the top brass at Maranello are so pleased with each other that it seemed only logical to project their commitment farther into the future. It was announced today that the Spaniard will wear Ferrari red at least through 2016.

Alonso told the media in Barcelona today, “It was good news for me and my career to extend the contract and get an extension to 2016…I said last year the intention is to finish my career with Ferrari. I don’t imagine a better place to race for a racing driver.”

Of course, the Kimster once predicted that he would finish his F1 career at Ferrari, and, oddly enough, he was right. Now Alonso is making a similar prediction: “I have been lucky to arrive here last year and I felt at home from day one and I have the possibility to race here until the end of 2016, so it will be seven years in Ferrari. I am happy and privileged, and maybe in 2017 we will have another contract. I will see if I am not too old and if Ferrari still want me.”

Of course, even with seven Ferrari years under his belt, Alonso will still be left in the shade comapred to the all-time uber-driver at Ferrari, i.e. one Herr Schumacher. Schumi hung his helmet in the Maranello garage for 11 seasons, and he scored most of his 91 wins during those years. He was, and is, the most successful Ferrari driver of all time.

But that really takes nothing away fro Alonso. The Spaniard is, in a sense, the ideal Ferrari driver. He’s a passionate racer, yet also cunning, calculating and analytical. It’s an oddly perfect combination of qualities that few drivers seem to embody (Schumi and Senna both possessed it, but not many others from recent years).

One driver who didn’t possess this amalgam of traits was Kimi Raikkonen. The laconic Finn is a distinctly passionless racer (not that he lacks competitive spirit, but he’s such an emotional flatliner, he seems to embody the essence of zombie racing. Also, unlike Alonso or Schumi, he’s not really a thinking man’s driver, and he hates developing the car.

Looking ahead, will Alonso score big at Ferrari, and garner them another much-coveted title? Hard to say, but at least he’s in the best possible environment given the sort of driver he is. Ferrari, unlike many other teams, makes no pretense to giving their drivers equal treatment. In fact, they love to have a lead driver which the team can rally around. Likewise, Alonso (again, much like Schumi or Senna) loves to be the focal point of that sort of attention.